News Feature | March 13, 2014

Proposed Rule Would Require Electronic Logging Devices

Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced a proposal to require interstate commercial truck and bus companies to use Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs).

This could be good news for solutions providers, who — for a few years — have been anticipating the rule that would require the devices. The FMCSA announced in 2010 it would mandate ELDs. On Aug. 26, 2011, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated the FMCSA’s Final Rule, stating that the agency did not address the potential for ELDs to be used to harass drivers or the prevention of harassment. The FMCSA responded with a study of the issue and work on a new proposed rule.

The resulting Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was sent to the Federal Register to be published on March 12. An estimated date of when the proposed rule could be final was not included in the FMCSA’s press release.

Last month, The Commercial Carrier Journal shared highlights of the C.J. Driscoll and Associates study, “2013-14 Survey of Fleet Operator Interest in MRM Systems and Services,” that confirmed what a lot of solutions providers suspect: that most fleets, especially smaller ones, were not planning to purchase ELD solutions until they become mandatory — which seems imminent with the publishing of the proposed rule.

The C.J. Driscoll and Associates study also found that 17 percent of those surveyed plan to acquire some type of GPS-based fleet management solution in next 12-18 months.

The study is based on the largest polling the U.S. commercial telematics market in recent years, surveying more than 500 fleet operators.